September 29, 2003   |   June D. Bell — Maybe it was parents who left their homeland with just $35 in their pockets. Or years of practicing on the piano for a competition. It might have been a childhood spent playing and fighting with the boys.

A common thread runs through the experiences of three Bay Area women with diverse upbringings: the passion for seeking out challenges that prepared them well for launching and running thriving businesses.

Rochele Lawson, chief executive officer and founder of San Jose-based All Day Cable, says growing up with a younger brother and a slew of male cousins forced her to adapt quickly to prove herself.

"I was a little girl, really skinny," she says. "I'd be out there fighting the boys. That helped me develop perseverance and a competitive spirit. I didn't want to be left out of everything."

She was the sole girl in a Mountain View-area hardball league in fifth and sixth grades. For the first few games, she says, the boys in the outfield would scoff, "oh, it's Rochele" and move in close when she came to bat. The taunts ended, she says, after she slammed a few home runs.

Ms. Lawson says proving herself on the field has served her well in business. As a woman in the predominately male field of telecommunications installation, she's been mistaken for a secretary.

"But once they get to know me, I'm a viper when it comes down to it," Ms. Lawson says with a laugh.

The 38-year-old, who has a degree in electronics technology, started All Day Cable in 1990. She also credits her prior career as an emergency-room nurse with honing her abilities to prioritize and stay calm amid chaos.

Practice makes perfect
Daphne Carmeli says her training as a classical pianist taught her the value of discipline and persistence. The founder and CEO of software company Metreo was 16 when she won a music competition whose prize was a performance at Carnegie Hall. When it came to choosing a career, however, she went for a math degree and later an MBA.

In college, she launched a student laundry and a typing service. She helped finance her graduate studies with a chocolate business. In 2000 she founded Metreo, which creates software that manages and analyzes pricing. The Palo Alto company is privately held and has 100 employees.

The 39-year-old says she still plays piano, but only for pleasure.

"I don't necessarily miss the (piano) competition," Ms. Carmeli says. "I feel I get that through work."

A life of globetrotting
Forced out by Communists in her native Latvia, Biruta McShane learned to speak German after she and her family moved to Germany. She then had to master English when they resettled in Oklahoma in the 1950s.

She learned to be responsible early on. Her parents, both engineers, often traveled for months at a time to work on projects around the United States, leaving Ms. McShane with her older siblings. "It was a lot of independence and trust," she says.

That experience helped lead her to found Bimark Inc., a meeting planning and incentive travel business based in Cupertino, in 1981. Ms. McShane has shepherded corporate groups from countless countries through her work. Her seven-employee company also has a division that distributes promotional items such as imprinted mugs and tote bags.

The constant need to adapt to new cultures helped her become more flexible with her business decisionmaking, she says. And, despite their extended absences, Ms. McShane says her parents' influence on her was powerful.

"My father and mother both said if you don't get your education, you will have problems," she says.

About June D. Bell
June D. Bell is a freelance writer based in Foster City